Facebook Rates Avril Lavigne 2011′s Most Popular Canadian Musician

This week, Facebook announced its “Memology 2011″ list of celebrities with the fastest growing pages and most popular media for the year. Napanee’s Avril Lavigne was the top Canadian performer listed in the music category, and third internationally – behind singer Rhianna, who took the top spot, and the legendary Bob Marley at number two.Facebook’s Data Team compiled the list using a number of factors, including the number of “likes” earned by the musician, their profile growth, and popularity in the media. So, although the top ranked performers may not have lead in any individual category, their overall scores were enough to surpass those with a clear lead in “likes” or other individual categories.

Justin Bieber may have been most people’s guess for the top Canadian in music when it comes to social media, but since the list relies prominently on growth – or the increase since the beginning of 2011 – Lavigne’s activity this past year garnered a lot of points.

In March, the singer-songwriter released her first CD in four years, “Goodbye Lullaby,” which reached number 4 on the Billboard chart and its first single “What The Hell” entering the Top 10. This release – after a relatively long absence on the charts – can be attributed as one of the main reasons for the boost in activity (ie. “likes”, links to media articles, videos, etc) on Facebook.

She was also frequently in the news this year, with recent reports that included an Illinois man on trial for killing his mother because she didn’t buy him a ticket to an Avril Lavigne concert, a delay in arriving to one of her London performances due to an unspecified security incident, and most recently being the victim of an assault – along with her boyfriend, Brody Jenner – while leaving a Los Angeles hotel.

Lavigne has remained in the news over the past month with the release of her third single “Wish You Were Here” which she has promoted on a number of morning shows along with an appearance at the televised American Thanksgiving parade.

She also had a brief cameo in the video for Rhinna’s song “Cheers (Drink To That)”, which includes a sample from Lavigne’s 2002 hit “I’m With You”, and is now in the studio working on her fourth album.